It is situated in Weardale, on the River Wear close to its confluence with Bollihope Burn; between Wolsingham and Stanhope; 18 miles (29 km) west of Durham City and 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne.

What remains is an earthwork mound surrounded by a modern housing estate (Kirk Rise).

The site was excavated in 1995, before the estate was built, and the probable remains of an ecclesiastical building were discovered.

Another reference to the place-name 'Frosterley' occurs in the Close Rolls of 1239, where it appears as Forsterlegh, meaning 'the forester's clearing'.

Frosterley Marble is a black limestone containing fossil crinoids of the Carboniferous Period, some 325 million years ago.